Att komma ut som människa. Om politikernas läsningar av Gunnar Ekelöf under valhösten 2010

Abstract

Rather human than politician? Appropriations of Gunnar Ekelöf during the Swedish general election of 2010

In the extensive media coverage of the general election in 2010, one feature made a particularly lasting impression. Swedish Radio invited seven prominent members of parliament, each prompted to read and reflect upon modernist Gunnar Ekelöf’s 1941 poem “En värld är varje människa”. In an attempt to examine a key aspect of the mutual relation between literature and politics, this article analyses the show and its reception in media, identifying the dichotomization of politics and literature as a central characteristic. Literature – both from a consumer’s and a producer’s perspective – is depicted as independent from, and in every way contrasting, everyday political life. I will thus argue that while Ekelöf isn’t appropriated ideologically in a traditional manner, e.g. using his poems to support a political argument, he (and literature in general) becomes a means to step out of an official position, instead assuming the role of a fellow man. This should in turn be understood as a claim for political legitimacy stemming from the 1800th century European reinterpretation of public relations in intimate terms.